Lună: Mai 2005

In the field of human knowledge there is a wide scope for General Irony since there is a fundamental contradiction between the desire to know everything and the impossibility to of knowling everything. The desire to know everything has, at least in the Western world, been transformed into an obligation; one just has to go on finding out more and more about King John’s fiscal policy, verb phrase complements, and non-functional colouration in birds’ eggs. ‘Thou shalt not be ignorant’ has been added to the Commandments. On the other hand, universal knowledge is impossible in several dfistinct respects. Astronomical knowledge of distant galaxies is necessarely hundreds of thousands of years out of date. We are told that it is statistically probable that these galaxies contain systems with planets inhibited by rational beings but that we shall never be able to communicate with them because of this time-factor. There is General irony in many other fundamental and unresolvable oppositions which life confronts us with and before which we can only say that there is much to be said for and against both sides. Every virtue has its vice, and every vice its virtue. Youth is wonderful but it is wasted on the young, as Shaw said. We value stability and look for change; discipline is necessary – is freedom less so? We are both individuals and members of our society, needing to assert our independence and express our solidarity. The body is sometimes wiser than the mind, the heart a truer guide than the head; but these truths reason teaches. Take no thought for the morrow, but save for a rainy day. Be yourself, and mend your manners. Be moderate in all things, including moderation. For him who sees no possibility of reconciling such opposites the only alternative is irony: a sense of irony will not make him any less a victim of these predicaments but will enable him in some degree to transcend them.